On a hot but breezy August evening, Italian wines are flowing in a loft above downtown Palm Springs.

A group of 30 mostly older men have already cheers’d four times – a Lechthaler pinot grigio, Damilano arneis, Ca’Viola barbera, Terlan Winkl sauvignon. Cheese has been sliced, olives nibbled, breadsticks crunched. This is Mood Wine club, a monthly gathering for wine buyers interested in a global selection of vino.

“If you can find one of the wines … in a store that’s local or broadly distributed, we don’t want it,” explains founder and chef Patrick Bartlett. “We want artisanal. We want wines that tell a story.”

The sun sets behind Mount San Jacinto before Bartlett and his partner, photographer Jake Stanford, uncork the final selection: Acinum prosecco. Much to the delight of the men gathered throughout the loft, there’s a dollop of limoncello gelato from local ice cream shop Kreem in each glass of bubbly. This is the point of being a “Moodie,” as members are called: to be surprised by wine.

“If I see another bottle of Sea Smoke, or another bottle of Rombauer, or another bottle of ... Belle Glos pinot noir, I’m going to puke,” says Bartlett, who works with Christine Soto, owner of Palm Springs wine bar Dead or Alive, to curate the selections. His club exists to expose locals to new varietals and regions, as well as brands outside the mainstream.

But that can be a tough sell in the Coachella Valley, an area that’s historically been slow to trends – and change. Here, the wine zeitgeist is a matter of two geographies. To the east, the country clubs of Palm Desert and La Quinta effervesce with a legacy of prestige, and bottles follow suit. In the west, Palm Springs has long been known for its cocktail scene.

But an emerging group of wine lovers are looking to change the (viti)culture. They want to drink vintages that don’t taste the same every year. Bottles that taste like the place from which they came. Unknown labels from vineyards outside Napa Valley. Varietals other than chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. It's this kind of openness that Soto wants to amplify through her inaugural Palm Springs Wine Fest this December – but more on that later.

The Coachella Valley is beginning to mature with palates that are a bit more adventurous, but it’s a slow process to raise collective glasses to the expansive world of wine.

Wine sits on the shelves in the wine seller of Zin American Bistro on Thursday, October 18, 2018 in Palm Springs, Calif.

(Photo: Vickie Connor/The Desert Sun)

Walk the line

To understand where wine is going in the desert, you have to understand where it’s been. Palm Springs might have been home to the Rat Pack sipping martinis, but it isn’t the only city with a boozy history.

“Ten, maybe 15 years ago, the (country) clubs were all booze clubs, in a sense they all drank vodka,” says Pierre Lemieux, who founded brokerage company Mosaic Wine Alliance in Palm Springs in 1991. “Other than maybe two or three clubs, you could sell a case of wine to a country club and that would last them the year.”

Back then, everybody in the Coachella Valley wanted allocated luxury Napa Valley wines, followed soon after by Oregon pinot noir, Lemieux says. When he started his company, the wine brokerage industry was still in its infancy, with most Napa wineries (other than the Mondavis of the world) selling direct to restaurants, he explains. Even as the business expanded (he now oversees a portfolio of more than 90 wineries), Lemieux recalls making an initial loop to see his clients – from the desert to Los Angeles – four times per year.

About a decade later, Mindy Reed opened her wine-focused restaurant Zin American Bistro in downtown Palm Springs in 2004, amid a culinary landscape anchored by old-school French classics Le Vallauris and Cuistot as well as Belgian bistro Pomme Frite and Austrian-Asian eatery Johannes. There were fewer restaurants then, she says, and the majority were American steakhouses or Italian eateries. Cabernet sauvignon reigned supreme.

Now considered to have one of the most interesting collections in the valley, Reed started with a one-page list of about 40 wines, kept in a closet cooled by an air-conditioner. She hung diagrams on the walls to remember where bottles were placed within cardboard boxes stacked two deep and eight high.

“In the beginning, I wanted small names,” Reed says. “Ten years ago especially, I (wanted) to give people value (and introduce them to new wines).”

So she shied away from recognizable brands, so much so that she received a review that called her list “as pretentious as the owner.”

Now, her list is about 30 percent mainstream – she finally added Rombauer chardonnay because she “got tired” of not giving patrons what they wanted. But Zin is also the place to find Spanish varietals from boutique producers (Reed’s favorite regions) and vintage verticals.

Last year, she did an “experiment” after a Mount Veeder cabernet sold well by the glass. Reed placed Bodegas El Nido Clio, a cabernet-monastrell blend, on her list for $18 and instructed her staff to recommend it to guests who wanted a higher-end cab.

“I went through so much of it, I had to take it off,” Reed says. “All we had to do was give people a taste of it.”

Her current collection spans more than 5,000 bottles and 475 selections in a temperature-controlled cellar, as she aims to serve the valley's two predominant types of wine drinkers: those who want big-name brands and familiar grapes, and those who don’t.

“I’ve just learned to walk this line to make them both happy,” Reed says.

Christine Soto, owner of Dead or Alive bar, is bringing a wine festival to Palm Springs, featuring all California-based winemakers.

(Photo: Vickie Connor/The Desert Sun)

Grasping grapes

Ask local industry veterans whose wine list they respect, and Spencer's Restaurant inevitably gets a nod. Wine and Spirits Manager Andre de Carteret’s list – close to 1,200 bottles – is California heavy, but “there’s so many gems on there if you take the time to look,” he says.

His collection is one of the few where you can find an Austrian grüner veltliner by the glass (of course there’s also Weingut Frank at Johannes), not to mention more than a dozen selections of Champagne and sparkling wine. Carteret also has extensive Bordeaux and Burgundy stunners. He wants to see grenache get the respect it deserves, petit verdot garner some attention. But it’s an “uphill battle,” he says, in the Coachella Valley.

Earlier this year, he placed a red blend out of Paso Robles on his list. Carteret found Beckmen Vineyards’ Cuvée Le Bec – a mix of syrah, grenache, mourvedre and counoise – to be “delicious.” But it hasn’t sold as well as he would like.

“You crash and burn a lot,” explains Carteret. “If a wine’s not selling, it’s tough to force it upon people. So, I try and price it right so it’s more attractive, and keep trying.”

These days, chardonnay is “king” in the desert, Lemieux explains. The Mosaic Wine Alliance CEO sells around 4,000 cases of Rombauer chardonnay annually in the Palm Springs area alone. And though it took Oregon and Washington snowbirds to help pinot noir take hold after the 2004 film “Sideways” brought it to California’s attention, it’s now the second-most sipped varietal alongside cabernet sauvignon.

Carteret says he’s constantly “trying to fight the big giants, but that’s what pays the bills.” There’s nothing wrong with those popular varietals and brands, he explains, “but if you are a little more adventurous, there’s a lot of cool wines without the big price tags out there.”

For example, Parker Palm Springs wine bar Counter Reformation sells tréssailler and sarménère – among other totally eclectic varietals – for only $42 a bottle. At Johannes, chef-owner Johannes Bacher maintains international flair with viognier, barolo and gewürztraminer by the half-bottle, plus about a page dedicated to Austrian reds and whites.

"I think we've come a long way, but I don't think we're there yet," Bacher says of the scene. He used to have a regional section dedicated Australia, but now he mixes and matches on his list that represents a collection of around 4,000 bottles.

Carteret is aware that Spencer’s affords him the cellar space and business to maintain his sense of adventure – and experimentation. Summertime Saturday nights see an average of 250 dinners, close to what the restaurant does during a night in season, he says.

Seasonality has always been a challenge in the desert. Red wine doesn’t look as posh poolside as, say, a margarita or mai tai. During the summer, the biggest sellers are inexpensive California selections, Reed says. And the height of season – when she can clear her cellar of higher-priced bottles and more eclectic varietals – is only three months long.

“It’s really fun to be able to sell some of those cool bottles,” Reed says, “but it’s a really short window that you get to do it on a large scale.”

Christine Soto, owner of Dead or Alive bar, is bringing a wine festival to Palm Springs, featuring all California-based winemakers.

(Photo: Vickie Connor/The Desert Sun)

Armchair travel

If Palm Springs’ older, political elite hold court in Spencer’s, the city’s young professionals gather within the secrecy of Dead or Alive. It’s the kind of bar where you need to bring business cards to pass around with a bag of potato chips from local sausage shop Frankinbun.

Surprisingly, potato chips go well with glasses of rosé. Soto has both a French and a California style on her list, which currently features soave, furmint and zweigelt, among other lesser-known varietals.

“There is so much good wine out there and so few people know about it," Soto says. Dead or Alive is her way “converting” people, or at least introducing them, to a "different kind of wine."

That's why she's bringing Palm Spring Wine Fest to the area this winter. “I do this night after night, with some impact – but small,” Soto says. “The wine festival’s mission is to introduce the people of the Coachella Valley to honestly-made wine.”

CLOSE

Christine Soto, owner of Dead or Alive bar, is bringing a new age wine festival to Palm Springs. It will feature all Californian winemakers.
Palm Springs Desert Sun

Happening Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 at the Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs, the inaugural festival – sponsored by DESERT magazine – will be far from traditional. Don't expect to see Rombauer, La Crema or Kendall-Jackson. Soto doesn't want to feature big-name brands. She wants to showcase “love in a bottle.”

Beyond the festival weekend, Palm Springs Wine Festival – established as a nonprofit – will bring educational wine events to the Coachella Valley throughout the year. Soto envisions seminars with winemakers, trips to wine regions, wine dinners, and trainings with educators or importers.

Until then, she’ll continue her mission within the dimly lit ambiance of Dead or Alive. The same goes for others who take a risk with their lists to offer a portal into the global world of vino.

Over at Whole Foods Palm Desert, beverage buyer Misty Carlson wonders if more people would enjoy different types of wine in the desert if they understood that lighter styles of reds are sometimes better when slightly chilled. She’s “mystified” that many of her customers won’t try Portuguese wines – and had a Slovenian white blend tank despite being reasonably priced. Then again, she says sancerre “flies off the shelf” during tennis season, and there’s never a time when she can’t sell rosé.

Last year, Carlson put together an entire display on Guadalupe Valley wines to bring awareness to the emerging – and trending – region in Baja California, Mexico.

“I’m not really interested in wines that taste the same every year,” Carlson explains. “You have to have those, because that’s predominately what sells. But when I’m picking the stranger wines, the wines that are really my pick, it’s because they’re made by a real person in a real place and they taste that way. They have stories and they tell stories.

“I feel like it’s armchair travel,” Carlson adds. “I may not get to New Zealand, but by gosh, I do enjoy their wines that have that sense of place.”

The valley is slowly evolving toward an openness for that kind of taste. This is the first year many of the mid- to east valley country clubs are adding a rosé by the glass, says Kristin Ryall, an account manager for The Estates Group at Young's Market Company who has sold wine in the area for the last four years. Plus, domestic pinot noir, pinot grigio and sauvignon blanc are also turning into hotter categories, she says.

“I’d like to see it continue to go where I feel like it’s slowly moving,” Reed says. “I’d like to have more places to go and have stuff that’s not on my list. I would like to see it get a bit more adventurous, and priced a little more friendly.”

In February, Jalama Wines owner Mark Cargasacchi opened a Palm Springs tasting room for his Central Coast pinot noir at La Plaza. James Mortensen and Mikey Consbruck hope to open V Wine Lounge on Tahquitz Canyon Way by spring. In the high desert, acclaimed Flamingo Heights restaurant La Copine pairs dishes like chef Nikki Hill's legendary fried chicken with styles by Scribe Winery, and recently added a selection of natural wines by Alessandro Viola.

And yet. Those seeking to be surprised by wine in the desert are often propelled by a rebel spirit. To uncork new kinds of vino is a risk, but it's one that they feel is worth the reward.

“In my case, the risk is all over the place – the location, the signage, the changing wine list," Soto said in an email. "But it's what I want to do, and I'm passionate about the wines and beers I pour. Do I want to make money? Yeah, I do. I want to make a living, of course. But I've made money before and it never brought me 10 percent of the joy I experience when I share a good bottle of wine with someone. (It's) one of life's ultimate pleasures."

Kristin Scharkey is the editor of DESERT magazine and community content editor at The Desert Sun. Reach her at kristin.scharkey@desertsun.com or on Twitter @kscharkey.

Christine Soto, owner of Dead or Alive bar, is bringing a wine festival to Palm Springs, featuring all California-based winemakers.